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Bagheera Fountain

Artist:

Lillian Saarinen

Location:

Boston Public Garden, at Charles St.

Location

Boston Public Garden, at Charles St.

United States

See map: Google Maps

Neighborhood:

Back Bay

Type:

Sculptural fountain

Year:

1986

Medium:

Bronze and Granite

Collection:

City of Boston

Funders:

Unknown

Description:

Originally entitled Night, this piece’s current title is inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. One of the story’s characters, the panther Bagheera, is born into captivity but escapes. He later helps to save the life of the main character Mowgli, a human child living in the jungle. Boston-area artist Lillian Swann Saarinen shows Bagheera lunging at an eagle. In a 1980 interview, Saarinen recalled that her interest in animals went back to her early childhood, when she used to stay up late at night sketching the mice that crept around her family’s brownstone. The artist was married to architect Eero Saarinen and worked with him on The Gateway to the West, the famous arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

Audio Description:

BagheeraFountain_Cook.mp3_.mp3

Quick Links:

Boston Art Commission